He doesn’t have three wins in his past seven races like Tony Stewart.

Nor has he earned his first win of the season in dominating fashion and propelled himself into the thick of the race to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup like Matt Kenseth.

In fact, Brian Vickers is not going to make the Chase – NASCAR’s version of playoffs – this season.

Vickers, however, has been making a lot of noise, which is a welcome change for the 21-year-old driver, in his second full Cup season driving the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

Over the past seven races, Vickers has scored the third most points among all Cup drivers – 969. Only series leader Tony Stewart (1,168) and Matt Kenseth (998), who won last weekend’s race at Bristol, Tenn., have earned more.

On the outside, Vickers does not have near as much to show for his recent strong run as Stewart and Kenseth, yet for a team that has been struggling to find its groove, the improved performance is reward enough.

“At the beginning of the season, a lot of people were expecting success right out of the box, but even we knew that was not going to happen,” said Vickers, who was reunited with crew chief Lance McGrew in the off season. McGrew and Vickers won the Busch Series championship in 2003.

“With the (new) cars needing to be built and Lance learning the Cup side of things, we knew it would take a while,” he said. “A lot of people expected different, but we had to be patient and roll with the punches.”

So far, Vickers has held his ground.

After winning the Busch title in 2003, Vickers was tapped by car owner Ricky Hendrick to drive the No. 25 Cup car in 2004. The transition was difficult and Vickers struggled working with crew chief Peter Sospenzo.

Vickers finished 25th in points, with no wins and four top-10 finishes. He did win two poles – at Richmond, Va., and California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., site of Sunday’s Sony HD 500 (7 p.m., NBC).

“We knew it was going to be a tough process. It was a nice to have the leadership of Rick (Hendrick) and the whole Hendrick family there to support you and know they were behind you,” he said. “It was tough for me to be patient about things.”

When McGrew moved over to Cup, the duo’s past success had many thinking Vickers would be on a quick turnaround to success. But things are never that easy.

“We’ve had a good team since the beginning of the year but at the start of the season, this whole team was just about new. Lance came on board and it just doesn’t happen right away,” Vickers said.

“Even though he and I have worked together in the past, a lot of guys on the team were new, some were even new to Hendrick Motorsports. It was a learning process for all of us.”

Vickers said many of the team’s cars had to be replaced, and unable to get it all done before the 2005 season began, they had to start the new season with some old cars.

Through the season’s first seven races, Vickers finished better than 21st only twice. Rumors began circulating his ride may be in trouble; talk started that he had moved to Cup too soon.

“I know it sucks whenever rumors like that get started, but it’s just part of our sport. I knew where I stood with Rick, and we knew it would take some time to get this team to where we wanted it to be,” he said.

“We all had confidence in each other to stick together.”

Soon there were signs of improvement.

He led much of the Coca-Cola 600 in May before getting in a late-race accident. And he finished second at the June race at Pocono, leading 121 of 200 laps.

After struggling at the June Michigan race, the road course at Sonoma, Calif., and the July race at Daytona Beach, Fla., Vickers has been able to sustain that all important quality in NASCAR – consistency.

“When you can lead a lap, you’ve done pretty good. When you can lead almost every lap, you know that on average, you were the best car that day, whether you won the race or not,” Vickers said.

“That’s a big boost of confidence for a team, for them to know they were the best team there that day. We want to win, but that will come soon enough. To run up front and lead a lot of laps, that’s a good feeling.”